Plants moderate in size, in dense, yellow-green to golden yellow shining tufts. Stems 2-4.5 cm, erect, simple or forked, densely foliate, rhizoids smooth, red-brown, sparse, concentrated along the proximal portion of the stem, central strand present. Leaves crisped-contorted when dry, widely spreading-flexuose when wet, subfalcate, abruptly narrowed from a flaring, obovate, strongly shouldered, sheathing base into a long, linear-lanceolate, canaliculate subula; apex subulate, not deciduous, distal lamina serrate abaxially; margins canaliculate, entire at the base, becoming distantly low-denticulate distally and strongly serrate near apex, 1-or irregularly 2-stratose; costa single, narrow, filling less than 1/3 of the leaf base, percurrent to shortly excurrent, smooth but sharply toothed abaxially near the apex, adaxial epidermis absent, stereid bands 2, adaxial band disappearing in apex; laminal cells plane, unpitted, smooth, differentiated, basal cells long-rectangular, thin to vesciculose, not differentiated along costa or basal angles, distal cells subquadrate, thick-walled. Specialized asexual reproduction none. Sexual condition autoicous; antheridia gemmiform, occurring at various distances below the perichaetium; perichaetial leaves similar to apical stem leaves but with higher sheathing bases. Seta 1-4 per perichaetium, erect, ca. 1 cm, slender, smooth, yellow. Capsule erect, symmetric, slenderly cylindric, straight or slightly arcuate, smooth or irregularly striate when dry, base gradually tapering to the seta, not strumose, annulus indistinctly differentiated; operculum obliquely long-rostrate; peristome teeth deeply inserted, 16, in 8 groups each composed of 2 teeth joined at the base and each tooth distally divided to above the middle into two rami, the 2 inner, neighboring rami shorter and narrower than the outer rami, vertically striolate at base and strongly papillose in the upper 1/3; deep red. Calyptra narrow, cucullate, rough in the apex, entire at the base, naked, covering the distal 1/2 of the capsule, fugacious. Spores 12-18 µm, smooth to very finely papillose, irregularly ovoid.
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